Tell me if this sounds familiar. You hear about a new automation tool that’s going to solve all your problems. So you sign up, you’re excited—this is going to change my business. But then you sit down and think: what should I automate? Lead scoring? Reporting? Maybe summarize my email? What’s actually worth automating?
When it comes to automation, three factors decide whether you’ve got a good workflow: think VCI—Volume, Clarity, Impact.
Volume: workflows that you run multiple times a day, hundreds or even thousands of times, are a good place to start. Because if you automate even a tiny part of the workflow, you’re going to get a ton of value. There’s this great chart from XKCD showing how much time you can dedicate to automating a task based on how often you do it. If your team does something 50 times a day for a minute each time, you can spend up to eight weeks automating that task and still save time over five years.
Next is Clarity. Gumloop flows are deterministic—yes, they often use AI, but AI is not deciding what the next step is. So it’s important that your workflow can be broken down into clear inputs, steps, and outputs. If you could turn your workflow into a flowchart, you’ve probably got a good workflow on your hands.
Finally, Impact. Are you saving money, time, or expensive resources? That’s how you can justify the value of the automation you’re going to build.
Before you jump into the rest of this course, two things to think about. First, identify a few high-VCI workflows you could tackle. Second, draw a diagram of the workflow—even a high-level one. With those in mind, we can start tackling automations by learning the building blocks of Gumloop flows.
